Glenn Herbert wrote:I don't see tires being suitable for building a dome, unless it's a very small one, as the dome structure needs to transition from vertical loads at the edges to nearly horizontal loads near the center. Corbelling (horizontal courses of "blocks" stepping inward with each layer) could work for short distances, but I'm not certain it could be stable for more than one decent room's worth of size. True dome "masonry" would have the tires angling inward as the courses rise, and holding them in place during construction and ramming sounds like a major headache and not safe without significant formwork structure. You might start the first 6 to 10 feet (depending on the wall profile) with tires, then continue with rigid timber structure in a dome shape.
Earthships as I have seen them have been entirely tire structures with roofs of other materials, no frame for the tire walls. The tire structure, once built in a stable configuration for the loads, would be strong enough to bury completely. The major question is, would you want to live underground? A hillside type layout with windows and emergency exit possibilities sounds more reasonable.
Structural questions need more specific design parameters for meaningful answers. Do you have any books on earthship building? Those would give more good answers than anyone who is not an expert on earthships could give you.
My husband and I aren't really seeking to build anything larger than 400 square feet, as it is only the two of us. I've seen images and a few useless videos about dome-shaped Earthships and I and know it's possible of course. But yeah, after we researched more (after posting this) we discovered a whole lot of future headache if we were to invest our time and energy into that. I'm here to learn as I don't even have the land to build on quite yet, so no I don't have any books on building Earthships.
We've honestly just been trying to figure out WHAT we want to build our future home out of, plan it out, design it, etc. before even trying to just "wing it", which of course would more than likely result in us continuing to live in our van-home.
Anyway, I've been looking at using earthbags as an option as well. Apparently they're relatively stable and make great dome houses, but have a kind of "meh" R-value. I'm definitely NOT referring to a COMPLETELY underground home, maybe hill-side is what I meant? Just think Hobbit hole, that's more what I'm aiming for here. I plan on having this dwelling in Colorado, so hail, snow, quite a bit of rain. I just want something that isn't going to wash away or get destroyed by hail. Earthships just seemed to be a decent idea.
If you've got anything better, by all means, let me know. So far all I got are earthbags and earthship for possible ideas.
